Coyote Management In Maine - All Talk And No Action?

Earlier this year the Maine Legislature, under pressure from hunters and other sportsmen groups, formulated a deer task force group to find ways to improve deer habitat and control coyote populations in Maine, particularly in the North Woods and Eastern Maine. The task force has concluded its work and it is my understanding have submitted their recommendations to the Joint Standing Committee of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. This work should become public information soon.

In an article published in the Lewiston Sun Journal, V. Paul Reynolds, editor of the Northwoods Sporting Journal and a registered Maine guide asks:

…..will something of substance actually be done to control coyotes in deer yards, or will this all just be deja vu all over again?

Reynolds points out in his article that this is not the first time studies and recommendations have been made for something to be done.

As far back as 1985, another so-called Public Working Group recommended that the Department (MDIF&W) “increase coyote harvest and expand coyote control.” Then, again, 10 years later in 1995, after deer biologist Gerry Lavigne told legislators that coyotes account for 30 percent of deer mortality in Maine, the state legislature mandated that the Department “conduct a study to determine impact of coyotes on deer and propose recommendations to encourage coyote control.”

Northern and Eastern Maine has had a problem for some time getting its deer populations up to management goal levels. It has been said that two reasons have hindered that - essential habitat reductions and an overblown coyote population. While the state continues to work with landowners to find ways of protecting and improving deer habitat and in particular wintering deer yards, efforts to control coyotes have been hampered by lawsuits.

The first lawsuit resulted in the banning of the use of snare traps for coyotes. Snares were used around winter deer yard areas to catch coyotes preying on deer. Buckling under the pressure of animal rights groups, the state gave in and allowed the ban on the use of such traps.

Yet again, the state recently settled a lawsuit out of court filed by the Animal Protection Institute, seeking protections for the Canada lynx. As part of that settlement, MDIFW agreed to once again place restrictions of trap usage. Larger traps used by coyote trappers were eliminated because of unfounded fears that lynx might get caught in them.

When you talk with trappers across Maine, the overwhelming consensus that I get is that once the state banned the use of snares, the only effective means of trapping the coyote was gone.

Even though MDIFW has lengthened coyote hunting seasons and has even allowed nighttime hunting, this effort has virtually no affect on coyote populations. The recent upturn in pelt prices has helped motivate a few more hunters and trappers but not to any point that would result in population reductions.

As we sit and wait the findings of the deer group, we will then see what, if anything, the JSC will propose for legislative action to help save a threatened whitetail deer herd.

Or will we be staring down the barrel of another all talk and no action recommendation?

Tom Remington